Dictionary of American Children's Fiction, 1960-1984: Recent Books of Recognized Merit

(Hardback)

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With its companion volume, this book effectively provides descriptions and evaluations of award-winning American fiction for children over the last 125 years. The compilers provide clear, insightful, and critical evaluations. Despite its title, the bibliography lists fiction for both children and young adults. . . . These two volumes, likely to become reference mainstays, are recommended for academic libraries that support children's and young adult literature or teacher education, and for public libraries and media centers. Choice This volume is a fine addition to the reference works of children's literature and should be considered as a first purchase by those studying children's literature in-depth and in particular by those preparing booktalks. ARBA These two volumes will be useful to anyone concerned with children's literature--librarians, teachers, and students. Reference Books Bulletin In this companion volume to their Dictionary of American Children's Fiction, 1859-1959, Alethea K. Helbig and Agnes Regan Perkins present detailed information on a comprehensive selection of contemporary books for children and young adults. This dictionary consists of 1,550 alphabetical entries for each title, author, main characters, and other important aspects of each work such as significant settings or elements in need of further clarification. The 489 novels examined in this work include the winners and finalists from major award lists, as well as other books recognized for merit by a variety of experts in children's literature. An extensive index includes all the items for which there are entries. Other index entries cover themes, subjects, unusual narrative structures, author's pseudonyms, and genres.

Reviews

With its companion volume (Helbig and Perkins's Dictionary of American Children's fiction 1859-1959, this book effectively provides descriptions and evaluations of award-winning American fiction for children over the last 125 years. The compilers provide clear, insightful, and critical evaluations. Despite its title, the bibliography lists fiction for both children and young adults. Entries for authors, titles, characters, and settings are arranged alphabetically; a detailed, comprehensive index identifies genres, subjects and awards. These two volumes, likely to become reference mainstays, are recommended for academic libraries that support children's and young adult literature or teacher education, and for public libraries and media centers.-Choice
"With its companion volume (Helbig and Perkins's Dictionary of American Children's fiction 1859-1959, this book effectively provides descriptions and evaluations of award-winning American fiction for children over the last 125 years. The compilers provide clear, insightful, and critical evaluations. Despite its title, the bibliography lists fiction for both children and young adults. Entries for authors, titles, characters, and settings are arranged alphabetically; a detailed, comprehensive index identifies genres, subjects and awards. These two volumes, likely to become reference mainstays, are recommended for academic libraries that support children's and young adult literature or teacher education, and for public libraries and media centers."-Choice

Author Bio

ALETHEA K. HELBIG is Professor of English Language and Literature at Eastern Michigan University. For more than 20 years she has been teaching mythology and hero tales, as well as Native American literature and the Bible as literature to prospective teachers. A former president of The Children's Literature Association, she has received the State of Michigan Award for Outstanding Teaching and Publication. She is coauthor of This Land Is Our Land: A Guide to Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults (Greenwood, 1994) and Dictionary of American Children's Fiction, 1990-1994 (Greenwood, 1996), plus a number of other critical reference books. She has published more than 100 articles in professional journals and reference books. AGNES REGAN PERKINS is Professor Emeritus of English Language and Literature at Eastern Michigan University. She is coauthor of This Land Is Our Land: A Guide to Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults (Greenwood, 1994) and Dictionary of American Children's Fiction, 1990-1994 (Greenwood, 1996), plus a number of other critical reference books and poetry anthologies. She has published many articles in professional journals and reference books.